![\"campaign-asia-calbee-black-white.png\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/campaign-asia-calbee-black-white.png\")
<\/p>\nCalbee\u00a0will strip colour from 14 flagship products, including Potato Chips, Kappa Ebisen and Frugra cereals, as supply shortages triggered by conflict around the Strait of Hormuz disrupt access to packaging materials.<\/p>\n
From May 25, the Japanese snack giant will temporarily switch to monochrome packaging amid shortages of naphtha, a key raw material used in printing ink, plastics and packaging containers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCalbee will continue to respond flexibly and promptly to changes in its operating environment, including geopolitical risks, and remains committed to maintaining a stable supply of safe, high-quality products,\u201d the company said in a statement. \u201cThe change applies only to a limited number of products and will not affect product quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oil and gas prices have surged since conflict around the Strait of Hormuz escalated on February 28, disrupting shipments through one of the world\u2019s most critical energy corridors. Naphtha prices in Asia have nearly doubled since then, squeezing manufacturers across the region.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s deputy chief cabinet secretary Kei Sato said the government was working to \u201cstabilise and resolve any supply imbalances and bottlenecks\u201d, as businesses grapple with rising costs and material shortages. Before the conflict, roughly 40% of Japan\u2019s naphtha imports came from the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The disruption is already rippling across Japanese industry. In April, Prime Minister\u00a0Sanae Takaichi\u00a0said Japan was expanding naphtha sourcing beyond the Middle East, including from the US.<\/p>\n
Japanese foodmaker\u00a0Mizkan\u00a0suspended sales of several natto products last month due to shortages of polystyrene containers, while snack maker\u00a0Yamayoshi Seika\u00a0halted multiple product lines in March.<\/p>\n
According to an April survey by the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 44.1% of Japanese consumer goods firms said they had already been affected by naphtha supply disruptions, with many planning to scale back production or redesign packaging. Packaging suppliers, including\u00a0Mitsubishi Chemical,\u00a0DIC\u00a0and\u00a0Artience, have also raised prices sharply.<\/p>\n
Beyond FMCG, companies including\u00a0Toyota\u00a0and\u00a0Hyundai\u00a0have warned of pressure on profits from higher material costs and slowing sales, while housing and industrial firms such as\u00a0Toto,\u00a0Lixil\u00a0and\u00a0Panasonic\u00a0have reported delays linked to shortages of adhesives and coatings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calbee\u00a0will strip colour from 14 flagship products, including Potato Chips, Kappa Ebisen and Frugra cereals, as supply shortages…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-22809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-japan","8":"tag-japan","9":"tag-japanese"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}